Jeremy Corbyn calls for political settlement to end Syria conflict

Jeremy Corbyn has highlighted three questions that need to be answered about the way ISIS operates, and suggested the British media did not cover recent terrorist attacks in Lebanon and Turkey prominently enough.

Making his first appearance on a breakfast entertainment programme, the Labour leader answered questions on ITV’s Lorraine show this morning about a suitable response to Friday’s terror attacks in Paris.

Corbyn described the events as “appalling”, but said they “probably” did not change the nature of the conflict in the Middle East, in the latest indication that Labour will remain opposed to UK intervention in Syria. Asked about the effect of the Paris attacks on the Syrian civil war, he said:

“Does the bombing change it? Probably not. The idea has to be surely a political settlement in Syria. It’s very difficult to achieve. There are some sign that the talks over the weekend have made some progress. Iran, Russia, USA, the European Union around the table together with all the regional governments, particularly Turkey, is key.” He said he would not include ISIS in the talks for a political settlement.

He warned that in the rush to bring those responsible for Friday’s attack to justice, it is important to remember that “war doesn’t necessarily bring about peace”.

“It can often bring about yet more conflict and more mayhem and more loss,” he said, adding: “It’s not easy and I’m not pretending any of it is.”

In the resolution discussions, there should be three main questions raised about the manner in which ISIS operates, Corbyn said: “Who’s funding ISIS? Who’s arming ISIS? Who’s providing safe havens for ISIS to get there?” In particular, he raised concerns about what role Saudi Arabia, a UK ally in the region, has played in their growth.

Corbyn also used the opportunity to highlight the disparity of coverage between the terrorist strike in France, and recent attacks in Beirut and Ankara, saying the British media needed to be better at reporting events “outside Europe as well as inside”. He said:

“[What] unfortunately got hardly any publicity was the bombing in Beirut last week, or the killings in Turkey. I think our media needs to be able to report things that happened outside Europe as well as inside Europe. A life is a life.”